Teenage Mental Health
Tips for helping a cutter find relief
I haven't read this yet… but looks interesting.
- Listen to their pain
- Ask questions
- Cutting can become a chemical addiction
- Find good Christian counseling for the student
- Encourage them spiritually
- Surround the cutter with encouragement
- Research cutting yourself
- Offer some alternatives
Read the article from Tim Schmoyer
Phrases that Crush the Spirit of Creativity
From youthministry.com
- We tried that before.
- It costs too much.
- That's not my job
- They're too busy to do that.
- We don't have the time.
- Not enough help.
- It's too radical a change.
- The staff will never buy it.
- It's against company policy.
- We don't have the authority.
- Let's get back to reality
- That's not our problem.
- I don't like the idea.
- I'm not saying you're wrong but…
read the rest here
ypulse
here's the link
three ways to live
Two ways to live is gold. Tim Keller pushes the response to ‘live my way’ (as opposed to ‘God’s way’) a bit further into ‘moralism’ and ‘irreligion’. It’s very good.
I heard it in this (mp3) sermon (found here) and then found the above youtube vid that had a short summary of the idea.
I think it relates to the post I did last night. If you think you know how (or at least what I’m thinking) leave a comment…
Loving the lost
There are two extremes on the cultural engagement spectrum. At one end there are Christians who are no longer being shaped by the Bible but by their surrounding culture. At the other end are Christians who denounce everything in culture as wrong.
My observation is that reformed evangelical Christians are more likely to fall into the latter. We run in the opposite direction from culture. We create Christian schools, home schools, Christian contemporary music, Christian sports comps, Christian monastic communities (sometimes in the guise of a theological college), Christian political parties and the like.
I’ve been reminded a number of times lately of a quote from Francis Schaeffer that has stuck with me. It’s the final paragraph in a chapter describing the despair experienced in the lives of 19th and 20th century artists. As I first read the chapter I began to laugh at the desperate things done by some of the artists. That was until the final paragraph. A timely rebuke:
These paintings, these poems, and these demonstrations which we have been talking about are the expression of men who are struggling with their appalling lostness. Dare we laugh at such things? Dare we feel superior when we view their tortured expression in their art? Christians should stop laughing and take such men seriously. Then we shall have the right to speak again to our generation. These men are dying while they live; yet where is our compassion for them? There is nothing more ugly than a Christian orthodoxy without understanding or without compassion. (The God who is there)
There’s a significant relationship between what Schaeffer is saying and humble orthodoxy.
3 warm fuzzies up for grabs. 1) name of artist above. 2) name of painting. 3) museum where it’s hung. (one per person)